The Department of Veterans Affairs continues to deny any connection between unsterile equipment and patients infected with HIV and Hepatitis. VA health officials appeared before a Congressional committee for the second time in as many weeks Wednesday.
A valve mix-up and bad cleaning procedures for colonoscopy tubing potentially exposed patients to bodily fluid from other patients. The problem surfaced at the VA hospital in Murfreesboro and in Miami and Augusta, Georgia.
The VA ordered thousands of patients to be tested for HIV and Hepatitis. 26 in Middle Tennessee turned up positive. But the VA’s under secretary of health, Gerald Cross, says the total number of infections is roughly what could be expected from such a large group.
“Although not definitive proof, this suggests that these infections are not associated with the endoscopy procedures.”
Cross says epidemiologists are conducting genetic tests to see if the infections are linked.
In the hearing, Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina pointed out that five of seven infected patients from the Augusta hospital received endoscopic procedures on the same day. He and others are calling for more centralized control and oversight of the VA hospital system.
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